1. Field of the Invention
The present invention, in general, relates to handles and, more particularly, to a disinfectant covering for a handle and method for applying a disinfectant to a surface of a handle.
Handles are widely used for a variety of reasons. Door handles are used to open doors. Faucet handles are used to control the flow of water through the faucet. A toilet handle is used to actuate a flushing cycle of the toilet. Numerous other varieties of handles are used to carry, move, actuate, or engage operation of some type of an object.
Many of these handles are in public places and are subject to frequent physical contact by members of the general population. There is risk that the spread of communicable diseases can be exacerbated by mutual contact with handles in public places.
If, for example, a carrier of an infectious disease that is transmittable through mutual touch (i.e., contact) with an object pushes on or otherwise makes contact with a public door handle that a person who is not a carrier of the infectious disease may later make contact with the same door handle within a period of time during which transmission of the disease remains viable through contact. If the person, after making contact with the door handle, acquires any of the infectious organisms there arises a risk of infection occurring to the person.
Depending on the nature and virulence of the microorganism the mechanisms for its transmission can vary greatly. For many microorganisms transmission of infection can occur in various ways, with some ways being more effective than others. For many organisms the likelihood of infection increases if, after having first made physical contact with a microorganism, the person then makes contact with one of their eyes or ears or with their nose or mouth. If contact with eyes, ears, nose, or mouth occurs within a period of time the microorganism may utilize the mucous membranes as a point of entry.
For many common types of microorganisms, such as varieties of the common cold, a resultant infection is usually mild. However, the potential for the occurrence of more serious consequences generally increases for the elderly and very young, as well as for those who may have a compromised immune response system or other contributing medical condition. Accordingly, less severe types of infectious disease, like the common cold, can expose people from these groups to a somewhat elevated level of risk of developing complication(s). However, for more serious infectious diseases, like influenza, the risk to people from these groups of developing especially severe or even life-threatening complications can increase significantly.
Therefore, people from these groups generally experience a greater desire than that of the general population to avoid contracting infection from communicable diseases, such as the common cold or influenza.
Additionally, the emergence of new pathogens, like H1N1 also occur and, depending on their severity, the immunity or lack thereof of the general populace, and their communicability, they may have the potential of causing widespread infection. Some can even cause epidemics or, worst case, world-wide pandemics. The infections produced by new pathogens may produce symptoms that are usually mild and only occasionally fatal, or they could be life-threatening for many of those who are unfortunate-enough to become infected. The uncertainty of the severity of infection that is associated with many newly discovered infectious strains can cause considerable fear of infection for much of the general populace.
An understanding of the transmission paths or mechanisms for transmission that can lead to the spread of infection from newly discovered pathogens may not be fully known for a period of time. This lack of knowledge can cause increased levels of fear among the general population who would prefer to play it safe by avoiding activities that they, as individuals, suspect may increase their chance of exposure to and possibly contracting a newly discovered microorganism. Therefore, people will generally wish to avoid the risk of transmission through mutual contact with an object, such as a handle in a public place, and especially so when relatively new and unknown pathogens are occurring in the populace.
It is useful to note that it is usually relatively easy, quick, and economical to identify various substances that if the substance is allowed to contact a [new] microorganism can kill or sufficiently weaken the microorganism sufficiently so that it does not pose a significant risk of spreading infection. However, learning about the vectors and mechanisms that spread infection or developing antibiotics to target the microorganism after it has entered into a person's body, by comparison, are likely to be far more difficult, slow, and costly to discover than identifying a number of substances that are capable of killing or weakening the microorganism by direct contact [exposure] with the microorganism. Testing to confirm the efficacy of substances capable of killing the microorganism upon making direct contact with the microorganism and that are safe for making contact with the human skin can often be completed well before deeper understandings or therapies for a newly discovered microorganism are attained.
This is especially significant because the potential benefits parallel the teachings of an old adage which states that, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Therefore, it is advantageous upon the discovery of a new pathogen to culture it and ascertain a substance that is effective in killing or weakening it upon contact. It is desirable to then use the substance(s) with the teachings herein to provide a means for preventing transmission through mutual touch. This has the potential to limit the size of outbreaks and save lives. Even if it is later determined that the new pathogen cannot be spread by mutual contact with an object, the psychological benefits of decreasing fear and anxiety and of not needlessly disrupting normal social patterns (like shopping at public stores) warrant the low cost of ensuring that this particular transmission vector (i.e., mutual contact with an object) is effectively blocked.
Also, changes or mutations in microorganisms can introduce new paths for infection. For example, infection by mutual contact with an object is a possible change for a microorganism that, previously, was not transmittable through mutual touch before.
Since most people will be required to push on a door handle in a public place to enter or exit the building or shopping mall there is ample opportunity for the transmission of germs or other agents that can cause infection to occur. The same is true when flushing a public toilet or when turning a faucet handle in a public bathroom. Microorganisms can be deposited on these and other objects in a variety of ways including, among others, mutual contact with an object (such as a handle of some type) by an infected person followed by contact with the object by a non-infected person and resulting in infection of the non-infected person, or by the infected person sneezing or coughing on the object followed by a second person making contact with the object and acquiring the microorganism, followed in turn by a third person making contact with the second person, such as by a handshake and resulting in infection of the third person.
Accordingly, there is a need to prevent the spread of disease for pathogens that are subject to transmission by mutual contact with a handle by infected and non-infected people in public places.
Similarly, in any private residence there are handles that many of the people who either live at the residence or visit there are likely to touch, such as a door handle, faucet handle, or toilet handle. Therefore, the risk of spreading infection by mutual contact with a handle also exists in a private residences.
Another area of acute need to control the spread of infection is in hospitals. A large percentage of those who visit a hospital when compared to the population at large are ill. Some come as patients who are treated and leave that day while others are admitted for a period of time. Visitors, family, or friends of patients may also be carriers of various infectious diseases as can the patients themselves. In general, hospitals can become a locus for the accumulation and transmission of infectious agents.
Accordingly, the numerous door handles, lavatory faucet handles, water cooler handles, and other handle surfaces that people are likely to make contact with in the hospital are especially prone to accumulating contagious microorganisms, thereon. Aside from an increased risk of contagion, in general, occurring in hospitals, certain of the patients may be at elevated levels of risk of being infected (even from a brief or otherwise limited exposure to microorganisms that would not normally result in the transference of infection to most healthy people) or of developing serious consequences from an infection (even as a result of exposure to a relatively benign type of microorganism) due to their weakened physical state or compromised immune response.
Therefore, taking reasonable precautions that help prevent the spread of infection is generally wise for all communicable diseases and especially so for more virulent or dangerous pathogens, or for newer microorganisms. This is true for all public areas, hospitals, commercial establishments and, in general, wherever the potential exists for the spread of disease including private residences.
There is a practice that illustrates the need for a solution to the long-standing problem of reducing the spread of infection arising through mutual contact with handles in public places. Many people, for example, after using the facilities in a public restroom and after having washed their hands will use the paper towel that was used to dry their hands as an intermediate or barrier layer as they grasp (i.e., make contact with) a handle used to open the door leading to or from the public restroom, unlatch the door, and open the door to exit the restroom. This practice is accomplished by an increasing number of people because they wish to avoid having any portion of their hands make contact with the door handle and risk the possible transference of a harmful microorganism (i.e., a germ, bacteria, virus or other pathogen) from the door handle to their hands and of possibly acquiring an infection (i.e., a cold, flu, bacterial infection, etc.) as a result.
When a trash can is located by the restroom door most people who engage in this particular practice will attempt to deposit their used paper towel in the trash can (wastebasket) after opening the door to exit. If no trash can is available they may discard their paper towel on the floor proximate the door rather than carry the used paper towel after exiting and then search for a trash can outside of the restroom to deposit the paper towel in. This can result in unsightly debris accumulating proximate the door of the public restroom.
Not only are the discarded paper towels unsightly, but they are also dangerous as they pose a slipping hazard. If the discarded paper towels contain a quantity of residual soap after a person has washed his or her hands, they can be quite slippery thereby creating an especially hazardous condition in the restroom that could result in a fall and possible serious injury. This can increase suffering for the individual who slips and it can increase liability for the owner(s) of the facility. It is for this reason that additional trash cans are more frequently being placed near the entrance door at an increasing number of public restrooms. Increasing the number of wastebaskets in public restrooms increases janitorial costs as there are now multiple wastebaskets to empty and clean. Discarding paper towels on the floor, of course, also increases janitorial expenses.
Also, some people will dispense a second, clean paper towel for use solely in opening the restroom door. This practice increases waste and the consumption of natural resources, and it contributes negatively to the premature filling of landfills and hastens the unwanted release of greenhouse gases (CO2) into the atmosphere.
The growing practice of using paper towels to open the restroom door when leaving the restroom further illustrates the need for providing an effective solution to this problem. As new diseases are being discovered and as people continue to become ever more health-conscious the need to help prevent the spread of infection (i.e., contagion) in public places is steadily increasing.
Therefore, there is a long-standing need for a solution that lessens the likelihood of the transference of infectious (i.e., communicable) diseases in public places. Similarly, there is long standing need to reduce litter in restrooms. There is also a need to lessen the use of paper towels, thereby conserving natural resources, decreasing landfill demand, and lessening the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
In addition, there is a growing need to both increase safety, decrease injuries and liability, and to also instill a feeling of increased safety among the general public as far as the possibility of a non-infected person contracting a communicable disease from an infected person through the vector of contagion via mutual contact occurring whereby the non-infected person makes contact with a handle following contact with the handle by the infected person.
Absent the availability of an effective solution there is evidence of increasing fear and of increasing avoidance behaviors occurring among the general population. Some avoidance behaviors may border on what appears to be irrational or excessive types of avoidance behavior. Fear supplies the motive force behind all such avoidance behaviors.
For example, certain people now carry a commercially available type of liquid disinfectant with them wherever they go and they apply it to their hands after contact with any person or object has occurred. Some people have adopted a multi-level hand cleaning and disinfecting process that includes cleansing with antimicrobial hand soap, followed by the use of a commercially available liquid disinfectant, followed again by a rinsing and drying of their hands using a second type of disinfectant, such as isopropyl alcohol. These types of behaviors are becoming far more commonplace today than they were even a decade ago. Certain of the commercially available antimicrobial hand cleaning or liquid (or gel) disinfectant products that are in widespread use today were not even available ten to twenty years ago.
The general level of anxiety or fear increases whenever a new virus or infectious microorganism is discovered. If an especially virulent new disease captures the interest of the news media, or when there is talk of a possible epidemic or pandemic, the general level of fear rises sharply. If the fear becomes sufficiently strong, people will avoid going to public places unless absolutely necessary. This can, for example, cause a significant drop in consumer spending (i.e., shopping) resulting from a decreased willingness to shop and risk exposure in public places. This, in turn, can contribute toward a potentially severe economic downturn.
Accordingly, there is a need for a product that promotes a feeling of safety as far as its efficacy in reducing or even preventing the spread of (certain) communicable diseases is concerned. Such a product would also cause a desired decrease to occur in the level of anxiety or fear that is experienced.
Additionally, certain of the prior art solutions have not provided a satisfactory solution to these problems or gained widespread usage for a variety of reasons. For example, some prior art solutions rely on a disinfectant vapor to kill microorganisms. However, a user cannot see, feel, or otherwise perceive the existence of the vapor. Accordingly, the user is apt to believe that the device is not working or that it is old and void of the disinfectant material even when it is functioning properly. Therefore, the user might not feel safe using such a device.
Gaining consumer acceptance for such a type of device may require educating a user to increase the user's understanding of how the device operates before the user would be inclined to rely on it. Educating the public can take time or be costly to accomplish. Even after being educated sufficiently to realize that vapors are being used to disinfect an object rather than experiencing direct contact with a perceptible liquid or gel disinfectant, the user may still prefer the security that comes when they know that their hands have made perceptible contact with a quantity of the disinfectant material.
Also, certain other types of prior art devices provide a release of a disinfectant that diminishes over time and/or use. Therefore, the efficacy of the device decreases over the course of time and use. The device may provide adequate efficacy when it is new, however, the efficacy may significantly decline over the course of time or use as the disinfectant is progressively consumed, with a greater dose of disinfectant than is needed being administered when the device is new and a lesser dose of disinfectant than is needed being administered after the passage of time and after the device has been used a sufficient amount. Also, there may not be an adequate indication as to when the device (or the disinfectant in the device) needs replacement or replenishing.
There is also another need and that is to reduce the time required by an individual to prevent or lessen the likelihood of contagion occurring. It takes time for a person to dispense and apply a disinfectant to his or her hands and wipe their hands to spread the disinfectant over the skin surface. This can cause crowding in restrooms and delay access to faucets or paper towel dispensers.
There is a need to reduce the time required to sterilize the hands of those who may come in contact with infectious microorganisms.
A device that continually provided a sterile surface would be especially ideal. In that situation a (non-infected) person who, after having made contact with the surface, would not have any real need to apply a disinfectant to their hands if the person knew that the surface, itself, had already been disinfected (i.e., if the surface was sterile or sufficiently sterilized). In other words, if the surface was able to kill or sufficiently weaken the greater percentage of microorganisms that had been deposited on it by an infected person, those people who later have contact with the surface would be considerably less likely to acquire the infection. For all practical purposes, the likelihood of contagion could be reduced to zero. In this situation there would be no additional time burden placed on the non-infected person. If the surface was, for example, a handle of a door in a public restroom, the person could simply contact the door handle, open the door, and leave without any further action or consideration being required, knowing that the door handle could not possibly contain and transmit any viable (i.e., infectious) pathogens to the person.
Therefore, there is a need for a device and method to squeeze, force or expel out of an interior portion of a handle covering and onto an exterior surface of the handle covering a quantity of disinfectant, wherein a portion of the disinfectant is transferred to a hand or hands of a user when the user makes contact with the exterior surface of the handle covering.
There is also a need for a device and method to provide, in combination, a desired type and a desired quantity of a disinfectant on an exterior surface of a handle covering, wherein a portion of the disinfectant is transferred to a hand or hands of a user when the user makes contact with the exterior surface of the handle covering, and wherein the user is able to perceive (i.e., feel) the presence of at least some of the portion of the disinfectant that was transferred to their hand or hands after having made contact with the exterior surface of the handle covering.
There is also a need for a device and method that expels a desired quantity of a disinfectant out of an interior portion of a handle covering and onto an exterior surface of a handle covering periodically to ensure that the desired quantity of the disinfectant is present on the exterior surface of the handle covering prior to or at the time that the user makes contact with the exterior surface of the handle covering.
There is also a need for a device and method that applies a desired quantity of a disinfectant to a surface of a handle, wherein a portion of the disinfectant is transferred to a hand or hands of a user when the user makes contact with the surface of the handle.
There is also a need for a device and method that applies a desired type of a disinfectant and a desired quantity of the desired type of the disinfectant to the surface of a handle, wherein a portion of the disinfectant is transferred to a hand or hands of a user when the user makes contact with the surface of the handle, and wherein the user is able to perceive (i.e., feel) the presence of at least some of the portion of the disinfectant that was transferred to their hand or hands after having made contact with the surface of the handle.
There is also a need for a device and method that applies a desired quantity of a disinfectant to a surface of a handle periodically to ensure that the desired quantity of the disinfectant is present on the surface of the handle prior to or at the time that the user makes contact with the surface of the handle.
Accordingly, there exists today a need for a disinfectant handle covering and method of applying a disinfectant to a handle that helps to ameliorate the above-mentioned problems and difficulties as well as ameliorate those additional problems and difficulties as may be recited in the “OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION” or discussed elsewhere in the specification or which may otherwise exist or occur and that are not specifically mentioned herein.
As different embodiments of the instant invention help provide a more elegant solution to the various problems and difficulties as mentioned herein, or which may otherwise exist or occur and are not specifically mentioned herein, and by a showing that a similar benefit is not available by mere reliance upon the teachings of relevant prior art, the instant invention attests to its novelty.
Therefore, by helping to provide a more elegant or effective solution to various needs, some of which may be long-standing in nature, the instant invention further attests that the elements thereof, when related in the specific combination(s) as claimed herein, are novel and that the claimed structures cannot be deemed as obvious variants of the prior art device(s) by a person possessing ordinary ability or ordinary creativity in the relevant field(s) of art when the presently claimed structures are viewed in light of the specific teachings of the prior art, and when the viewing of the prior art is accompanied by a consideration of the purpose(s) of the prior art, the problem(s) solved by the prior art, and the efficacy of the improvements provided by the prior art when compared to the instant invention.
Clearly, such an apparatus would be useful and desirable.
2. Description of Prior Art
Door handle covers and sanitary devices are, in general, known. For example, the following patents describe various types of these devices, some of which may have relevance as well as others which may not have particular relevance to the invention. These patents are cited not as an admission of their having any particular relevance to the invention but rather to present a broad and diversified understanding regarding the current state of the art appertaining to either the field of the invention or possibly to other related or distal fields of invention.    U.S. Pat. No. 6,546,594 to Wills, that issued on Apr. 15, 2003;    U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,155 to Barrios, that issued on Dec. 31, 2002;    U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,140 to Visco et al., that issued on Aug. 15, 1989;    U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,942 to Crace, that issued on May 23, 1989; and    U.S. Pat. No. 1,491,780 to Abbott, that issued on Apr. 29, 1924;and including Statutory Invention Registration:    U.S. Statutory Invention Registration No. H2137 to Newman et al., that published on Jan. 3, 2006;and including Patent Applications Publications:    U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0065112 to Polakow, that published on Mar. 12, 2009;    U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0000060 to Edens, that published on Jan. 1, 2009;    U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0230576 to Meine, that published on Oct. 19, 2006;    U.S Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0059663 to D'Ambrosio, that published on Mar. 23, 2006; and    U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0010652 to Kellaher et al., that published on Jan. 19, 2006.
While the structural arrangements of the above described devices may, at first appearance, have similarities with the present invention, they differ in material respects. These differences, which will be described in more detail hereinafter, are essential for the effective use of the invention and which admit of the advantages that are not available with the prior devices.